It only could have been better if Dr Pepper existed in this soda deprived country!

This week was pretty crazy but also mostly a lot of traveling so not all that much happened. We had a few lessons and such, which was usual. I am not really sure as of right now if any of our investigators went to General Conference in Monterrico because we went to a different place to watch it in English, which I am extremely grateful for because General Conference was awesome. For anyone reading who is not aware of what that is, we have General Conference as a way to hear from modern day Prophets and Apostles that are called by God to preach to the people. Like they had prophets in olden times to help people know the words and wills of God, we believe in the same structure of church. We have a prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and 12 apostles and a quorum, like a group of people, of 70, which are more apostles to help with the world because if it was up to 13 people, they would probably lose their minds. So on the day of General Conference, we watch these people speak to us for a few hours on Saturday and on Sunday. So that is General Conference. 

 

I really like this years sessions. The talks were really powerful. They seemed to stress the family and the Book of Mormon this year more than anything. I love that! Those two things are really all you need to know and have an understanding of. The importance of the family and the Book of Mormon. I really love my family, and I have been very blessed to have a great family as well as great people as extended family. For that, I am really glad that it is part of God's plan to have families forever and to continue living with the people I love. It brings me great joy to have this knowledge. There was also one talk that someone gave that went really in depth to how the Book of Mormon was created. I can't remember the name of the Elder who gave it and I do not have my notes, but it gave some hard facts of how the only way that it would have been possible for Joseph Smith to translate the Book of Mormon, was through the power of God. It has really affirmed my testimony of Joseph Smith being a prophet and translating the Book of Mormon. I don't know if I had a strong testimony of that before the MTC to be honest. But now, I can really feel the power there is behind the words of the Book of Mormon and the accounts of Joseph Smith that are in the Book of Mormon. One of my favorite things we do in sharing the Book of Mormon with people is, we read the introduction with them. It is pretty long so we share like the first and last paragraphs with people that explain that the Book of Mormon is an account of when Jesus Christ visited the Americas in His perfect state and that we invite all people to read it and ask God for themselves what is right. I love it so much that it says that in the Book of Mormon. Ask God for yourself. Don't ask the internet or people in the street, ask God Himself about these things, and if it is done with a sincere heart then you will receive an answer. I love it so much. 

When we had English class come, I had a little miracle happen. We only had one person show up, so we just taught some basic days of the week and months and stuff. Elder Batman usually does most of it since he knows a lot more Spanish than me, but I got to do it at the end for a little, so I think I taught her two words when she asked me a question. What church is this?  ALL of you missionaries know that this type of question is what dreams are made of. So I got to have a nice little discussion with her about what our church is and what we believe and all. I invited her to church and she looked at me like I asked her to do something ridiculous, but that is ok because I felt some real comfort afterwards because I was sharing the gospel. I think eventually she might come around and attend one time. But also if not, todo bien. OHHH we also got to go to Salta this week, which took a lot of travel time, but we got to go to.... wait for it.... McDonald's!!!! It was awesome. They have a triple mac! It is like a Big Mac but with more! It only could have been better if Dr Pepper existed in this soda deprived country. But it was still awesome to have a little miracle of that in my life. I am keeping the cup just to remember the event. 

And as for Pday, we went and played a little soccer and basketball with some other missionaries. Elder Taylor and Elder Vasquez spent the night in our apartment after conference and that was fun too, although in the morning me and Elder Taylor were slow to get out of bed, we were awake, just not alive, so Elder Vasquez flipped the mattresses on top of us. It was pretty funny. That was not enough to make us move either so we were just laying there on the floor under mattresses, so Elder Vasquez jumped on top of the mattresses too. That didn't work either. At one point my foot felt pretty warm during this, turns out that this was from Elder Vasquez too. Apparently he got pretty innovative with trying to get us to go, so he lit some of the hair on my toe on fire. Have a Peruvian burn my toe hair can officially be crossed off of my bucket list, not that it was ever on there in the first place... But it is all good, nothing bad happened from it and it is all just a little funny. It has been a good time so far in the mission, even though we really are not having much success and have had some really interesting moments. 

This week I got to do a lot of self reflection and I am pretty happy with my somewhat crazy decision to live in Argentina for two years. Se que el Libro de Mormon es la palabra de Dios. Se que estoy haciendo decissiones correctos. Se que tenemos profetas hoy como en tiempos antiguos y que ellos pueden recibir revelaccion para el mundo. Testifico que los profetas son llamado de Padre Celestial y son partes del plan de el Senor. Se que Jose Smith es un profeta y que el traduccio el Libro de Mormon directamente de Dios. En el nombre sagrado de Jesucristo, Amen.

Here are some pictures. Some are good. Others are not. Like them or don't like them. I do not really care. Sometimes I have better pictures. That is all.

Love you all! Hope that everything goes well this week! Hasta ver!